[Beowulf] Re: failure trends in a large disk drive population

Mark Hahn hahn at mcmaster.ca
Mon Feb 19 10:13:47 PST 2007


> Aren't those maxtors eating nearly 2x more power than drives from other 
> manufacturers?

I doubt it.  disks all dissipate around 10W (+-50%) when active.
that stretches a bit lower for laptop disks, and a bit higher for 
FC, high-rpm and/or high-platter-count disks.

unfortunately, seagate has gutted maxtor's website, so it seems 
almost impossible to get a simple spec sheet for maxline drives.
I did find a japanese sheet that simply lists 9.97W (probably idle)
which is entirely typical for such a disk.

but I think the point is that putting any disk in a poorly 
ventilated enclosure is asking for trouble.  it's not really clear
what google's paper implies about this, since they basically
say that new, too-cold disks are at risk, and old too-hot ones.



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